Family

Second-graders learn about hand washing from teacher Josh Halverson, out of view, as they read from an informational text on school-owned iPads at Oakbrook Elementary School in Wood Dale, Illinois on August 29, 2012. The reading curriculum has been incorporating more non-fiction. (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune/MCT)

The second-graders sat cross-legged on the floor, fanning out from their teacher in a classic scene that has played out for decades in America's schools. But these kids weren't getting ready to read stories.

Instead, this was "informational text" time in Mr. Halverson's class in DuPage, Ill.'s Wood Dale School District 7, with students using iPads cradled in their laps to access nonfiction information about germs, their study topic.

Welcome to an avant-garde classroom, where nonfiction is edging out fiction. It's part of a controversial curriculum shake-up and marks a pivotal change in thinking about what public school students should be reading to prepare for college and work.

To be sure, novels, plays and poems won't go the way of "nevermore," as Edgar Allan Poe's raven would say.

But educators acknowledge that the quantity of fiction will decline as more nonfiction is added to lessons across the curriculum. This will be true even in English classes, where fiction classics like "Lord of the Flies," "The Great Gatsby" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" have dominated reading lists for generations.

English teachers will make more room for so-called informational text and literary nonfiction. That could include anything from digital and print articles to essays, letters and speeches, like British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's wartime "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat" address to the House of Commons.

For better or worse - only time will tell - the emphasis on nonfiction is a key element of the new Common Core learning standards in English language arts and math that are reshaping curricula across the country.

Adopted by 45 states, they are considered more rigorous than previous benchmarks for what students should know and be able to do. Testing on those standards is scheduled to begin in 2014-15.

In reading, the idea is that greater use of nonfiction exposes kids to what they'll face in the future. At college and work, most reading material is nonfiction, and developers of the standards say K-12 students need more practice to understand, assess and synthesize complex nonfiction information in a variety of subjects.

The new focus can offer some innovative blending of course material, teachers say.

The new standards push for a 50-50 mix of fiction and nonfiction across subjects in the early grades - a big change for young children, according to educators - followed by 55 percent nonfiction in junior high and 70 percent in high school.

The numbers stem from the amount of fiction and nonfiction appearing in passages of the National Assessment of Educational Progress test.

The percentages have caused some confusion and spurred debate.

This summer, a mom on a blog for parents of public school students in New York blasted the figures as "arbitrary and wrong-headed, and if enforced, may kill the love of reading among many children."

Fiction reading has been on the rise, she noted, with the popularity of the "Harry Potter" novels and the "Hunger Games" trilogy.

"My eighth-grade son . reads many thousands of pages a year," the mother wrote. "Should he be forced to read thousands of pages of nonfiction to match this? Or should he instead be discouraged from reading novels, so that his 'informational text' quota can be more easily reached?"

Education historian Diane Ravitch also has been critical, saying this spring on her blog: "I don't know how one develops imagination without reading fiction. . I can't imagine a well-developed mind that has not read novels, poems and short stories."

The situation gets more complicated in high school because students are usually placed in different levels of classes, depending on their skills, and educators acknowledge that honors students tend to read more than others.

So it's not clear whether the Common Core standards will increase reading - whether it's fiction or nonfiction - for all high school students.

Administrators also point out that high schools may already have reached the 70-30 percent guidelines of nonfiction to fiction, because many classes use only nonfiction texts and materials. That means dramatic change may not be necessary.

Philip Prale, the assistant superintendent for curriculum in Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 in Illinois, said his district isn't looking to do away with literature, which he believes "opens up worlds for people."

Instead, teachers will use nonfiction materials to add context to a novel, such as material about the migrant experience during the Great Depression as part of the study of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men."

"I think we'll get to the 70-30," Prale said. "And we'll still be able to retain a focus on literature."

The English Language Arts Common Core standards for 6th through 12th grades list these examples of nonfiction, called "informational text" or "literary nonfiction."

"Letter on Thomas Jefferson" by John Adams (1776)

"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" by Frederick Douglass (1845)

"Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: Address to Parliament on May 13th, 1940" by Winston Churchill (1940)

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Travel

Tour with the Mattatuck Museum on Sunday and spend a leisurely afternoon with architectural historian Rachel Carley discovering two charming towns in the Naugatuck Valley and explore the rich history, remarkable architecture, and the unique and beautiful Matthies Park.

Outdoors

Masterpiece. Art. Perfection. Many fancy words and rapturous phrases have described Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous house. It's all true. But what is also true is that I kept thinking, wow, this Mill Run, Pa., house is not childproof. A 2-year-old could tumble out that low, unlocked window and fall to his death! A toddler would drown in that unfenced plunge pool! The railings aren't high enough. The floor is too hard. And that giant open fireplace, what a safety issue. And where is the kitchen, anyway?